Tashirat foundation in Mexico

Dearest Friends and Family,

Christmas has passed but we are still left with a lot of beautiful memories of the Christmas pageant which is now officially Tashirat’s end of the year highlight. This year was our 3rd annual “Pastorela”, which is performed by many of our Tashirat children and students from the Ixaya School. We uploaded many video clips from the Pastorela. They are all located at our You Tube Channel: www.youtube.com/tashiratkids

One of our favorites is our angel Melina on the "telas" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lawt1JgZfss but you can find all of the videos at http://www.youtube.com/tashiratkids if you'd like to see the whole show .

It’s not as good as the real thing, but it will give you a glimpse! The best part of the show was really seeing the kids feel so good about themselves for what they accomplished, and their parents with tears in their eyes as they watched them perform.

This year Rubi and Sami portrayed Mary and Joseph, and Melina, Tanya, and Misha performed acrobatic dance on the telas. This was Misha’s first “telas” performance, and a big event because just two weeks before the performance she wanted to drop out! She couldn’t perform the routine as fast as her partner, but within a week of the show, she picked up speed and come show night, she did a beautiful job. Melina and Tanya are already becoming seasoned performers; since Shana has been too busy with high school, the younger generations are getting intothe spotlight more than ever!

Many of our younger children danced and sang along with their classes; for Atair, it was his first ever performance ever. When he got his costume, he was so excited, he just couldn’t stop giggling and grinning – and he didn’t want to ever take it off!

Following the pageant we all sang “the piñata song” as we broke a bunch of piñatas with Ixaya students and their families. Having been used to our more tame piñata parties, with only our little children, we watched in horror as a mob of 30 kids dive-tackled the fallen piñatas. Although it looked a lot like a football pile up, everyone came out with huge, piñata-crazed grins and hands full of fruit, peanuts and, the ultimate prize: pieces of the piñata to store their loot in!

Christmas was spent with our official Tashirat grandpa and grandma, Tom and Kristen Bissinger. They have been coming for years and really cultivating a relationship with each one of our children, even as their clan of grandchildren ballooned from 9 to 19 to 30 children! Christmas was especially festive with “granma and granpa” here to share it! A big thank you as well to all of your who sent such beautiful gifts down for the kids this Christmas!



On three Kings Day, the traditional day for giving gifts here in Mexico, we invited the government home for abandoned senior citizens to Tashirat. It is like the home our children once lived in, but for seniors, many of whom remain in the home until they pass on. It was really beautiful to see the kids interact and give of themselves, spending time playing board games, sharing cookies they had baked, probing them with questions and just listening to their stories.

Now, the Ixaya school is back in session and everyone is really excited to be back!

As for our high school teens Shana, Antar and Julio, we have found an amazing on-line, virtual high school which is based in Miami, Florida. While it is specifically made for Spanish speakers, it will provide them with a diploma that's valid both in Mexico and the United States and give them a lot more time to pursue their various interests. Other advantages are that they can complete their high school studies in just one and half years, instead three, which is important because Shana and Antar are already 2-3 years behind in their schooling , because of all the years they weren't sent to school before the age of 11. They also will have more time for the extracurricular activities such as dance and music and Antar's electronics course, all of which they had to give up when starting the local highschool this fall. The schooling there was very intense for them, with many, many hours of homework and long hours at school. After two semesters in the local highschool, we saw they really needed a more practical education – in large part because of all the years they didn't go to school. The are really excited to have enrolled in this on-line school,as it really meets their needs and academic level better, and has allowed them to pursue all of their interests at the same time. Of course, all of this would never have been possible for them if not for Georgie's Computer Lab, where they are currently taking all of their classes! Thank you again Georgie and Jak; you have opened a whole new world of possibilities for our children with this amazing gift!

Wishing you all a wonderful 2011!

With much love,

Tashirat kids and staff